In Parasite we saw there are a couple of cameras around the house (one in the garden and the other one outside the house, I think in front of the garage) that can prove to the police where Ki-taek escaped.
Why didn't the police check the cameras?
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2 Answers
There are two explanations:
- There is a dead angle that the cameras cannot see, when Ki-taek escapes, he knows exactly where the dead zones are so that he does not escape to the outside, instead he goes back into the basement.
- It is not clear if Ki-taek really does manage to escape as what happens after the murders at the house party is not necessarily the truth. There are several visual / logical hints from the director that show us all the escaping, hiding in the basement, talking to his son via morse code and his son manages to get rich and ultimately buys the mansion and reunites is unreliable narration.
Some of the visual / logical hints are:
- His son suffers a serious injury and from there, his narration gets unreliable and illogical. When his son opens up his backpack, we can see there are medical pills inside, perhaps for his unstable mental condition.
- After a new European family moves into the mansion, the way the family pictures on the fridge resemble the family pictures of the previous family. Coincidence?
- The background ambient light looks different too, it is a subtle hint that it is happening in someone's head.
- His son starts smiling uncontrollably after his head injury, but when the movie starts showing that his son communicating with his dad, his son never smiles.
- Is it possible for his son alone to notice the lights flashing on and off in the night? There is no way for Ki-taek to know exactly when to turn on and off, only for his son to see.
- That stone is seen back to his son's hands, his son places it back to a river. But that stone is a piece of critical murder evidence, why would the police give it back to his son?
My personal interpretation is:
- What happens to Ki-taek is not shown to audience, what happens after his son's head injury is all happening in his son's head, given the many coincidences. It is how his son copes with his family's tragedy.
- His son has lost his father, his son hopes that his father is still hiding in the basement and they talk regularly.
- His son will never be rich enough to buy that mansion, but he imagines he could do it.
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The movie makes clear that "his son manages to get rich and ultimately buys the mansion and reunites" is a fantasy of the son, written down in the letter to his father. Whether the rest is imagined is open to interpretation, but I don't see why an unreliable narrator would include his fantasy.– BCdotWEBApr 8, 2020 at 8:12
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3@Sadeghbayan Regardless of the unreliable narration thing which is probably the intended interpretation, the main camera that had a view of where Ki Taek re-entered the house was disabled the night before by the woman he accidentally killed.– M.A.R.Apr 8, 2020 at 10:23
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When Moon Gwang (the original housekeeper) visits the house, while the absence of the family, to look after her husband in the basement, she mentoined to Chung Sook (the new housekeeper), that she cut the cables of the camera(s), so that no one would know, she was there.
Later, when Ki-taek escapes, you can see a short shot of the camera(s) with the cable still cut.
That's why the police was not able to have a look at the camera recordings.
